Compulsion: A PlayIn Chicago in 1924, two brilliant university students, the sons of millionaires, kidnap a boy and kill him. They celebrate their "perfect crime" in a nightclub, with their girlfriends and a fraternity brother, who happens to be a reporter. Tracing of a pair of glasses dropped at the scene of the crime leads the reporter to an interrogation of the two "supermen" in a cat-and-mouse scene, in which they flaunt their extravagant ideas, but eventually entangle themselves. Their bizarre crime arouses a lynching fever, and, in the face of this, a humanitarian attorney fights for their lives. Questions of juvenile delinquency, capital punishment and psychiatric evidence are the subject of the courtroom battle. The struggle over the fate of the two boys is waged between the defense attorney, who believes that we are fallible creatures trapped in our mortal imperfections, and the prosecuting attorney who contends that all men must be held responsible for their actions and punished for their crimes, whatever the causes might be. |
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alienist ALLMAN Anne Frank arbitration Artie Straus Artie's AUNT BERTHA baby believe Billy bird boys Broadway changes chisel Compulsion court crime Czewicki death dialogue director Doctor Dramatists Guild EMIL everything fantasy father feel FELDSCHER Folie à deux fraternity girl glasses guilty hang Hegewisch Honor HORN ideas insane jail Jonathan Wilk Judd and Artie Judd Steiner judge jury kidnaping kill knew lawyer Leopold-Loeb little brother looks MAX STEINER McNamara MCNARRY mental MEYER LEVIN MIKE mother Mumsie murder MYRA never night PADUA Paulie Kessler perhaps pick play prison producer producer's question rehearsal RUTH SANDRA scene script Sid Silver slave Slimovitsky stage STAUFFER stop Stutz Bearcat Supermen sure SWASEY talk Teddy bear tell theater things thought tion told tried Übermensch victim Wait writer